PEORIA — A crowd of about 300 voiced their opposition to the potential construction of affordable housing in their central Peoria neighborhood vehemently Monday night, putting the Peoria Housing Authority on the defensive.

Many who remained at the end of the nearly three-hour meeting stormed out when PHA CEO Brenda Coates denied the accusation of planting public housing residents in the meeting to combat negative public perception of Taft Homes.

Three Taft Homes residents shared personal information with the crowd gathered to discuss a proposed development site at 3772 N. Brandywine Drive after hearing about negative comments made at previous meetings. The site is at the eastern edge of Brandywine, a street that includes a sprawling apartment complex, the Grand Hotel, an extended stay hotel, light industry and varied shopping strips.

“I am not a statistic and I refuse to have the majority of you in here put me in a statistic,” said Jamika Russell, who shared how she was a homeowner before a layoff forced her and her two children into homelessness and eventually Taft Homes. “It’s not because I made that choice.”

Residents at the meeting at the Life Together Center, the largest and longest of the three meetings held to date, voiced many of the same concerns about increasing crime rates and declining property values if affordable housing is built.

“I have a heart, and I have feelings, and the other residents do, too,” Taft Homes resident Latacha Perry said. “It’s not getting anything done to push people out and try to put people in one category.”

After hearing what the Brandywine neighborhood had to say about the potential of living next to public housing, Perry said she wouldn’t want her children to live there, a comment that was met with rapturous applause.

Coates said transportation was provided from Taft Homes, just north of Downtown, just as it has been provided for other public meetings, and the residents who spoke at the meeting were not personally invited or picked by the PHA.

Rather, they chose to defend themselves after hearing comments from previous public meetings, while many residents chose not to attend Monday’s meeting.

One neighbor, concerned about safety on nearby streets and the walkability of the neighborhood, suggested constructing a fence separating public housing from the existing neighborhood.

Several others advocated for a voucher-based system that would break up public housing to stand-alone houses instead of multi-family complexes, which the PHA said would be difficult to manage.

Pat Kasier, who said she was against housing projects, said those who live in that neighborhood already made the choice not to live near public housing.

Page 2 of 2 - “It’s our right not to do that,” Kaiser said.

“I know people need help. This is the wrong way to go about it. Leave our neighborhood alone.”

Councilman Jim Montelongo, whose 4th District includes both the Brandywine location and another proposed site on West Lake Avenue, said he was opposed to development in both of those locations, echoing the sentiments of his constituents that he would encourage voucher programs instead.

“I don’t think (multi-family developments) have proved successful in the last 100 years. I think we’ve got to move away from that,” Montelongo said.

The PHA is expected to select a co-developer by the end of the week, which will help narrow the vision for Taft Homes redevelopment, which has only been discussed in unspecific terms.

Coates said none of the properties discussed in recent weeks have been purchased or ruled out.